Baby born with heart outside body was treated successfully.

A 7 day old baby born with extremely rare birth defect of heart protruding outside the rib-cage was successfully operated through a life-saving surgery in Brahmananda Narayana Multispecialty Hospital. This rare birth defect called “Ectopia Cordis” is reported to happen in 5 per one million births globally.

The team of doctors comprising of Cardiac Surgeons & Plastic Surgeons planned carefully planned the surgery, which lasted for 6 hours. The baby was delivered in the vehicle while the mother was being rushed to a nearby primary health centre. They were later refered to Brahmananda NarayanaMultispecialty Hospital.

The first challenge for the doctors was to control the infection & simultaneously address other complications post which the surgery was performed.Senior Consultant Cardiac Surgeon Dr. Perwez Alam commented : This was a very rare & Complex surgery which involved team of cardiac & plastic surgeons. The survival rate of this surgery is only 40% & if the heart was left outside the body for too long it would have resulted in immediate fatality. The second phase of the surgery will be done in 5 months in which with the help of the plastic surgeons the rib cage wall will be reconstructed. This will be followed by a third phase which includes repair of any other cardiac defects associated with this condition. He also added “ This surgery is a first-of-its kind reported in eastern India.

This condition is a congenital malformation in which the heart is abnormally locatedeither partially or totally outside of the rib-cage. The ectopic or protruding heart can be found along a spectrum of anatomical locations, including the neck, chest, or abdomen. Globally there have been only 250 such cases reported & about 23 cases in India. The paediatric cardiac department at the hospital has the most comprehensive model of a dedicated & cohesive team that is specifically focused on complex heart diseases.